The Call of God (Hebrews 11), Part 16

Sandals, Faith and Holiness.

Tell es-Sultan tells us a story. The jumble of bricks exposed by the archaeological dig reveals a fallen wall. It indicates an upper balustrade atop the surrounding city enclosure had fallen against its lower rocky ramparts. The remains of brick houses lie in tumbled and torched ruins—signs of an ancient earthquake followed by a great fire. Evidence of substantial stores of grain add to the story of a city suffering a quick and effective siege. Its inhabitants had not been starved into surrender but rather had found their defenses nullified when a freak earthquake coincided with the arrival of their enemies. Only one or two structures remain standing—simple apartments built into one section of the outer wall that remains standing.

The author of Hebrews 11 summarizes Joshua’s story in one line: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.”

God had selected Joshua to lead the ancient Israelites into their Promised Land. He had spoken to Joshua earlier, commissioning him for the daunting task, three times encouraging Joshua to “be strong and courageous”. He had promised to be with Joshua, to never leave him or forsake him. It was no small thing to lead God’s twelve-tribed unruly band of Chosen People. God was preparing Joshua. Encouraging the fearful is something God takes seriously. But God knew there was something more Joshua needed in order to face the ordeal.

One day, as Joshua neared the iconic border city of Jericho, God revealed Himself to him. He appeared as a fear-inspiring, weapon-wielding commander and there was nothing Joshua could do but fall prostrate to the ground in reverence.

“Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy,” thundered the voice of the commanding God.

The message was clear: it is not enough for a follower of the LORD God to be strong and courageous. Neither is it enough to know He is near, ever-present and supportive. God’s followers must also be holy. They must be tenaciously persistent, adamant and committed to being nothing less than holy. And God knows our natural bent is to be anything but that. So God often speaks to us of specifics. He calls us to look at our normal daily activities, relationships and attitudes and apply holiness to them.

To Joshua God spoke about sandals. Joshua’s sandals had helped him in untold ways: they had protected his feet through forty years of desert wanderings; they had insulated him from the scorching daytime paths and the risks of nighttime scorpion stings. The sandals had provided him with a measure of self-respect and deportment—going barefoot was for the poor and marginalized. And sandals had given Joshua a Plan B of escape, a hope of fight or flight if any of God’s Plan A plans put Joshua in danger.

But God explained to Joshua that he was standing on holy ground, sacred and set apart for God’s glory. He was illustrating for Joshua that every place God’s servants stand is set apart by God as holy, and so they must become holy too. God Himself is holy—He is completely other than any one or thing in all creation. This otherness describes His unmixed and perfect goodness, justice and loving-kindness. To tread on holy ground is a calling to access God’s holy character. It is a command to set aside the destructive self-interest, self-protection, and self-satisfaction that we humans insist is our right. Selfishness has no place in holiness. Only as we remove self-centredness like kicking off shoes unfit for the task will holiness have a chance to grace our feet.

“How beautiful are the feet,” Scripture tells us, “of those who bring good news!”

Joshua was changed that day. God’s holiness dusted and baptized the feet and the person of Joshua. Joshua went back to the Israelites and in turn inspired them to be holy. He spoke to them of God’s goodness and of God’s call. He inspired them to grow in their faith. The landscape began to change for them that week. Their feet, too, began to stir up holy dust as they walked. Prison-like walls fell. People were rescued. God’s followers were enabled to enter their Promised Land.

What is God speaking to us about through this story? What are our ‘sandal issues’? Which of our activities, relationships or attitudes need to be doffed in favour of simple holiness? God’s plan for our journey always leads us to a process of becoming people characterized by the goodness of His character. He wants us to be other than our natural bent toward selfishness. He wants us to have faith in His Son Jesus and to step out to exercise that faith as He commands. He wants us to break down walls of injustice and bondage, freeing others to become holy too. He’s calling us. That’s holiness.

Thirty-one Ordinary Prayers, #14

Prayer of Blessing (Paraphrasing Psalm 128)

The only blessing worth having comes from You, Lord-from fearing You, from holding You in highest esteem, and from living the nitty-gritty of our lives by Your principles and power.

For one thing, our labour, when it is focused on Your kingdom, results in a grand spiritual harvest; we benefit both now and for eternity. We become more Christ-like and we see others join in on the journey toward holiness.

For another thing, our families produce a social harvest of loving relationships, husbands, wives, sons and daughters complementing and caring for one another with uncommon compassion. It’s like a feast at a dinner table, abundant, nourishing and comforting.

We truly reap what we sow. Fear of You, Lord, produces all this blessing and more. I want this blessing for others too, Lord. I want to say to them:

‘May the Lord bless you with His presence all the days of your life; may you have eyes to see His kingdom come in your life now and for eternity; may you find that life with God is life to the fullest; and may you bless future generations by passing on to them the great inheritance of the gift of Jesus.’

Culture of Life

We’ve been dabbling in death for too long. From the French Revolution’s lethal guillotines through the atrocities of Jihadist terrorism and the convenience of ‘therapeutic’ abortions there runs a culture of death as swift and overpowering as a mighty current. The Western World’s recent ‘advances’ in assisted suicide provide a solution no less diabolical than Hitler’s death camps. Who can offer us something more than the hopelessness and emptiness of death?

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” answers the first century fisherman Peter. “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).

Peter’s epistle of praise to God reflects upon and savours Christ’s offer of assisted procreation: the gift of “new birth.” It is more than a dry theological premise. Much more. The concept of Christian new birth is the key to living an extravagantly deep and meaningful life. But where did Peter come up with this concept of new birth?

The teaching originates with Jesus, who Himself explained, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” This new birth forms the foundation of the experience called the Christian faith. We all know what Christianity is, don’t we? But let’s look a little closer at what new birth really means.

Jesus explained, “Spirit gives birth to spirit,” and “So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” He is saying that the Spirit of God regenerates that part of us that is designed to commune with Him and ultimately live forever within that primary relationship. The depth of this birth means that it is invisible to the human eye. It is the unseen core that now pulses within the believer. The Apostle Paul explains that we “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” All fine and well, but how do we actually do this?

Peter anticipates our question by calling believers “newborn babies”, “obedient children”, “chosen people” and “a people belonging to God.” As God offers new birth to believers our first job is to embark on a new way of thinking about ourselves—that is, to understand our new identity. Every thought, every word, every intention and action we will go on to initiate arises from this mindset of our new identity.

Since we each come out of old, distorted identities prior to our new birth of spirit, we need to be intentional about settling this issue in our minds. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is now our God and Father. We are His children; we are no longer bound to be rebellious but are free to obey Him out of love for Him.

The third level of our new birth involves our behaviours. “Just as he who called you is holy,” Peter counsels, “so be holy in all you do”; “love one another deeply, from the heart” and “rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” Like the old saying, “Beauty is as beauty does,” our behaviours are the evidence of our spirit and our identity.

We have no small task ahead of us. Holiness is otherness; it is living other than the way our old bent to selfishness and lies used to cause us to live. God, though—great joyful mystery!—is on our side. Just as He launches our new birth through His Spirit giving life to ours and as He helps us understand our new identity, He also assists us in developing the new behaviours we need in order to be authentic. His Son Jesus is the model for the new character into which we will mature and His Spirit is the impetus within us to help us reflect our model.

So those who accept Jesus’ offer of living hope through His resurrection have moved. We have moved from a culture defined primarily by death, to one defined by life—eternal, Spirit of God-filled, ever-expanding life. It’s a new birth and a new identity, which leads us to new behaviours. How will this change the way you live today?

 

Psalm 15:1

Verse 1:  “LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?”    

This is a prayer; God invoked, named, and questioned.  This is the vowel-less name YHWH the ancients used of the Awesome One who described Himself simply as the “I AM”.  The Supreme One is so far beyond our reckoning that we must come to Him in simple awe-filled wonder of His being.  He is, and we have become aware of it.  Breathe Him, sense Him, live Him.

 The question, at first seems to be rhetorical: Who in the universe could ever dwell in God’s sanctuary?  Who could live on His holy hill?  We must come to see His majesty as so complete that we, like the awestruck apostle Peter (Luke 5:8), despair of our own depravity in contrast to His holiness.

 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8,9)

This is the beginning of prayer.  This is the setting, the matrix, the milieu in which our mindset must be formed. This is where adoration of God embarks. Thoughts of self must be put into perspective: Yes, we are amazing creatures, capable of many wonders, not the least of which is our ability to think and will and be autonomous.  But even in our independence we must admit we are not the ones in ultimate authority here.  We are incapable of the holiness of God.  We cannot ascend to the heights of His existence. Here, at the threshold of wonder and despair we must bow before Him.  Yes, He is our Creator; but here we must choose to call Him “LORD” or be forever lost in the deception that we have our own holy hill, and that is enough.

Holy One

Creator of All

 Open my eyes, soften my heart

To embrace the great truth of your Being.

This morning I call You ‘LORD’,

Ancient, holy name.

I bow.

 

Desert Places Burst to Life

Dry.  Lifeless.  Barren.  Deserts sustain their dubious distinction based on their receipt of minimal rainfall.  Lack of camouflaging foliage displays clearly every rise and fall, plain and canyon of terrain. We marvel that any creature can exist in the stark ecosystem of deserts.

Life can be like that.  Sometimes we feel dry and barren, moving through each day’s routines, numb to beauty and parched in spirit.  If we halt for a moment our feverish pursuit of activities that fill our waking moments we find, like grains of sand, they slip between our fingers; nothing of substance is left.  Nothing remains to camouflage our emptiness.

Imagine a mist, a growing, spreading, towering cloud forming over some desert.  Skies darken; the scorching sun is suddenly blocked.  Then drops of unknown rain begin to fall.  Faster and faster they drop until it’s a torrent, a wall of water pouring down.  At first the sunbaked ground seems to repel the strange element, but soon the water finds the cracks and fissures in the hard earth and seeps its way in. As suddenly as it began, the storm stops and the clouds dissipate.  The air is fresh.  Puddles are swallowed by softened thirsty sand.  Something else is about to happen.  Life in the desert is about to awaken.  Creatures are about to surface and sprouts and buds and blossoms are waiting to burst open.  Transformation is at hand.

Earth’s physical deserts illustrate for us God’s great plan of transforming each of us.  The ancient Hebrew sage and prophet Isaiah penned a beautiful description of God’s work.  The lives of those, the “redeemed”, who will admit their need will be like deserts, “parched land”, gladdened by the rain of God’s thirst-quenching Spirit.  Listen:

Isaiah 35

The desert and the parched land will be glad;

the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like a crocus it will burst into bloom;

it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;

they will see the glory of the LORD,

the splendor of our God.

Strengthen the feeble hands,

steady the knees that give way;

say to those with fearful hearts,

“Be strong, do not fear; your God will come,

he will come with vengeance;

with divine retribution he will come to save you.”

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert.

The burning sand will become a pool,

the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the haunts where jackals once lay,

grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

And a highway will be there;

It will be called the Way of Holiness.

The unclean will not journey on it;

it will be for those who walk in that Way;

wicked fools will not go about on it.

No lion will be there,

nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;

they will not be found there.

But only the redeemed will walk there,

and the ransomed of the LORD will return.

They will enter Zion with singing;

everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

The great Redeemer loves to rework hopeless situations into oases of splendor.  Rich with contrasts, Isaiah describes lives lifted from dry subsistence to lush and joyful productivity.  He calls it the “Way of Holiness”, a direct reference to God’s own holy nature.  This way of living consists of a ceaseless stance of openness toward God.  It is a face-to-heaven, hands open attitude of constant expectation.  God is the giver; we are the happy recipients.

Isaiah makes exceedingly clear, though, that some things must go.  This is not an easy grace, an eclectic collection of feel-good fantasies.

Fear must go.  We may not entertain the faithless practice of worry.  God is greater in goodness than any evil we fear.  He will make all things right in His time.

Blindness must go.  We must open our eyes to the presence of God here and now every moment.  No longer may we allow ourselves to be deceived by the pride and selfishness that sees all revolving around self.  The truth of God’s presence is the light we need to see His centrality in our existence.

Lack of forgiveness must go.  It is the haunt of jackals in the recesses of our memories.  It destroys the relationships God want to be productive.  We may not cling to past hurts of being wronged.  Only God has the wisdom to know where vengeance is the rightful response.

Uncleanness must go.  Only those washed by the redeeming work of Jesus may participate in this transformation.  This world’s ideas of immortality through empty pleasure or cosmic unity are but foolish thoughts.  More than foolish, rejecting God’s chosen Redeemer is wickedness itself.  That is a dead end route and has no part in God’s highway.

And sorrow must go.  Yes, there is a place for grieving life’s trials, but we must not give in to hopelessness.

The overwhelming awareness of God’s goodness swallows up every sigh.  Everything from songs of praise to awe-filled prayers of silent thankfulness fills our wondering souls.

God’s blessing is here and now.  Yes, we long for heaven but God’s eternal kingdom is at work in us now, if we will receive it.  Today, God’s Spirit is raining down thirst-quenching, healing, living water for you and me.  We must let it seep into our souls, softening the crust life’s troubles have baked solid.  Drink it up.  Soak it in.  Something is about to happen.  Transformation is at hand.